A 21-mile recreation and nature trail in northeastern Illinois
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	Nature
	Wildflowers and grasses Some areas of the Old Plank Road Trail have never been cultivated. The right-of-way for the Oswego and Indiana Plank Road was bought around 1850, only a couple decades after the first settlers came to Will and Cook Counties and much of the land was native tall grass prairie as it had been for centuries. Many of the plants pictured are native prairie flowers and grasses that were rediscovered in the early 1970s when the abandoned railroad right-of-way was inventoried. Over 200 plants unique only to prairies along with over 2,000 species of animals, birds (175 and counting), and insects not ordinarily seen except in prairies make up this unique trail right-of-way.
	Compass Plant Silphium laciniatum		Ox-eye Daisy Chrysanthemum leucanthemum		Shooting Star Dodecatheon meadia
	Click here for a listing of flora along a selected stretch of the Old Plank Road Trail in Rich Township.		Shooting Star Dodecatheon meadia		Foxglove Beardtongue Penstemon digitalis
	Flowering Spurge Euphorbia corollata		Queen Anne's Lace (European introduction) Daucus carota		Gray-Headed Coneflower Ratibida pinnata
	Compass Plant Silphium laciniatum		Puccoon		Common Spiderwort Tradescantia ohiensis
	579		Yarrow		Common Valerian Valeriana edulis
	Thistle		Controlled burning of prairie		Dame's Rocket (European invasive) Hesperis matronalis
	Wetland		Bittersweet Nightshade Solanum dulcamara		Click here for a listing of flora along a selected stretch of the Old Plank Road Trail in Rich Township.
	Milkweed Asclepias sullivantii		Compass Plant		Obedient plant Physotegia virginiana
	Obedient Plant Physotegia virginiana		Bloodroot Sanguinaria canadensis		Sysyrinchium albilum
	Spiranthes cermua		Purple Coneflower Echinacea purpurea		Obedient Plant
	Shooting Star Dodecatheon meadia				Ohio Horsemint
	Page Notes: The book, Tallgrass Prairie Wildflowers: A Field Guide, was helpful in identifying the plants pictured on this page. It was written by Doug Ladd with photos by Frank Oberle and others. Tallgrass Prairie Wildflowers: A Field Guide, was published in 1995 by the Globe Pequot Press of Guilford, Connecticut. Let me know if you have comments or corrections. Thanks for identification assistance: Tinley Park Public Library staff Keith G. Nowakowski, Landscape Architect		Nodding Wild Onion allium cernuum		Hairy Beard Tongue
	Spring Beauty Claytonia virginica		Hoary Puccoon Lithospermum canescens		Butterfly Weed Asclepias tuberosa
	Indian grass		Silky Aster Aster sericeus
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